An integrated circuit layout is a planar geometrical representation of circuit components in an integrated circuit. The integrated circuit layout may also include details that correspond to metal, oxide, and dielectric layers of the integrated circuit that form the respective circuit components. An integrated circuit device is manufactured based on its integrated circuit layout. The location of the circuit components on the integrated circuit layout will correspond to the location of actual circuit components on a manufactured semiconductor substrate.
The integrated circuit layout may need to be created based on design-for-manufacturing (DFM) rules when placing the circuit components on the integrated circuit layout. One of the DFM rules is a predefined circuit component density. When an actual circuit component density of the integrated circuit layout is out of a predefined circuit component density range, the manufactured integrated circuit may not be functionally reliable.
Generally, the circuit component density for an integrated circuit layout is lower than a minimum to the predefined circuit component density range. Therefore, dummy cells are usually added to the integrated circuit layout to have the predefined circuit component density in between the maximum and minimum of the predefined circuit component density range. However, adding dummy cells in the integrated circuit layout have led to, in most situations, a significant increase in the circuit component density until it is above a maximum of the predefined circuit component density range.
Hence, in those situations, the dummy cells may need to be manually removed until the circuit component density becomes within the predefined circuit component density range. The manual removal of the dummy cells may be time consuming and costly.